Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. One word to describe the Preterit is ACTION. It is something that had a beginning and an end. The English translation is usually something like (habló) = he spoke, he DID speak. One word for the Imperfect is DESCRIPTION. It is something in the "middle." You have no idea when it began or if it even ended. The English translation is something like (hablabas) = you WERE speakING, you USED TO speak, and you spoke (in the 3rd translation it crosses over with the Preterit; therefore making it more difficult to spot.)

John se casó con = John did marry (action ended; not he was in the middle of marrying her) Victoria (since you don't give the English, I'll supply what is most usual.
cuando yo tenía (perfect! imperfect with time and age; don't forget the accent, without which it is incorrect.)

thank you, this helped me a lot. I'm trying to practice this til I get comfortable with it. I keep overthinking the context of every sentence. my teacher really is not good at explaining this either. *sigh* hopefully over spring break I'll be able to learn everything.
anticipate more questions from me, for sure, haha.
thanks again for taking the time to help me!

4. With hacía + a time expression + que + the imperfect to describe an action thata began in the past and continued in the past. In such expressions, How long? is expressed by ¿Cuánto tiempo hacía que? followed by the imperfect indicative.

Hacía una hora que estudiaban. They had been studying for
an hour. (It made an hour that they were studying.)
¿Cuánto tiempo hacía que Ud. How long had you been trabajaba? working? (How much time
did it make that you were
working?

5. With the preterite. It describes what was going on in the past when a definite action occurred (preterite).

Ok, sorry. It would not copy & paste and that's not a surprise! I'll retype for you.

Sra

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